


i just wanna make you smile

by nouiszouis



Series: Monthshots! [14]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe, Doctor Harry, Fluff, Kids, M/M, cliche harry characterization
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-30
Updated: 2014-05-30
Packaged: 2018-01-27 16:05:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1716554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nouiszouis/pseuds/nouiszouis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>louis takes his daughter to the doctor's office. the doctor they get is young and tells dumb jokes and louis really likes him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	i just wanna make you smile

**Author's Note:**

> day 14 of 'monthshots'!
> 
> it's based off of [this](https://24.media.tumblr.com/4c5a64cc3b6fe64b3315b170236b02b5/tumblr_n6evbetBfJ1sn3qwuo1_500.png) prompt (which is actually mine)
> 
> i have to give a special mention to maria aka @prettyboylouis on twitter because she's awesome!!
> 
> the title is from 'classic' by mkto (sort of)

“Hey, everything will be fine, Em,” Louis reassures his daughter with a soft smile. “The doctor is just going to check your throat out and we’ll be done in no time.”

They’re in the waiting room of the doctor’s office, sitting patiently until they’re called back to one of the rooms. Louis’ daughter, Emily, has had a sore throat for a few days so he decided to come get it checked out to make sure it’s nothing worse than what they think.

“Will they have to give me shots? Or stick that thingy in my finger?” She asks quietly, looking up at Louis with big blue eyes. 

“Nah, not unless I tell them about how you ate my cookie last night,” Louis says to her with a grin. “They might want to punish you for such a terrible crime.”

Emily giggles and swings her legs under the chair. “They wouldn’t do that, daddy. And I didn’t _steal_ your cookie anyways, you _gave_ it to me!”

“Hmm, that’s not how I remember it but I’ll take your word for it this time,” he replies with a smile.

There’s some kid movie playing on the television in the corner and Emily gets entranced by it, giving Louis a chance to relax before having to deal with whatever questions or undefinable words he’s going to hear in a little bit. He hates doing these kind of things because it means he actually has to seem like a responsible adult and, although he’s two years from thirty now, there’s still a huge part of him that doesn’t ever want to cook dinner or clean his apartment every week.

He glances around at all of the other parents with their kids and compares himself to them. It proves to be somewhat difficult considering they’re mostly women, but once he sees most of them struggling just to fill out all of the documents and papers, he doesn’t feel so bad about himself. Maybe he’s not the only parent that has to ask their kid for half of their own information.

“Emily Tomlinson?” A nurse calls out from the now opened door at the back of the room.

Louis and Emily both turn around to meet her bright smile before standing up and making their way to where she’s standing. Emily carefully grabs onto Louis’ hand and he squeezes it to give her comfort and the extra boost of confidence she needs.

The nurse leads them through a small hallway and into a small room near the end. The room has light pink walls and is decorated with childish paintings of jewels and tiaras and hearts. The bed that Emily has to sit on is even made to look like a princess castle which Louis gives props to because all he ever gets at his doctor’s office is a plain room with dull walls and a crabby nurse that always seems to hate his or her job.

“If you could just step over here, Emily, I need to record your height and weight so we can see how healthy you’re growing,” the nurse says nicely.

Emily follows her instructions and stands on the scale then moves to the measurement stick on the wall, obviously stretching her body out as much as she can to make herself seem taller. She takes after Louis on that and he bites back a smile at how much he sees himself in her.

Finally, the nurse gives the ok for Emily to sit on the bed and tells them that they just have to wait a few minutes until Dr. Styles will be with them. Louis nods and let’s out a long breath as she walks out of the room and shuts the door carefully behind her.

“How tall was I?” Emily asks curiously, her voice sounding soft because of her throat problems.

“I didn’t actually see, but I’m sure you’re going on six foot by now. After all, you do share my dna and I’m quite the giant,” he jokes.

“I’m not that tall,” Emily says and sticks her tongue out at Louis. He laughs and raises his hands in defense. 

“It was just a guess, don’t hurt me.”

She let’s out a joyful laugh again and Louis smiles to himself too, loving seeing his daughter smile more than anything else in the world. 

“I’m one of the shortest kids in my class, daddy,” Emily says with a pout now, her mood somehow changing instantaneously.

“And there’s nothing wrong with that,” Louis assures her. “Who even wants to be a typical normal sized kid these days? It’s all about being different now, so you’re already a step ahead of everyone else!”

“You aren’t just being funny?” She asks, narrowing her eyes cutely at her dad.

“I promise I’m one hundred percent serious,” he nods.

“Well.. then that’s cool I guess,” she says with a blush.

“It’s pret-ty darn awesome,” Louis tells her with a smile.

She doesn’t say anything else and looks down at her feet, kicking them against the castle underneath her. Louis places his hands on his thighs and drums out a nonsense beat, trying to entertain himself while they wait for this Dr. Styles guy. He’s secretly hoping that the doctor isn’t too old and scary looking because he doesn’t want Emily to be nervous any more than she already is.

Then, there’s a knock on the door before it opens, revealing exactly who Louis was just thinking about. Right when he looks up, Louis let’s out a sigh of relief because this doctor can’t be much older than twenty three or so. He’s got curly hair and a glowing face and dimples in his cheeks formed by the ridiculously large smile played across his lips. The thing that gets Louis, though, is the banana patterned shirt he’s wearing underneath his typical white doctor’s coat.

“Hi, you must be Miss Tomlinson!” He exclaims, walking forward to Emily. He grabs her hand in his own and bows down, kissing it once before straightening up again. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“You too, doctor Styles,” she giggles joyfully.

“Now, what is this little princess doing in my office?” He asks and Louis is too zoned out from the previous moment to realize that he’s being referred to.

He looks up and meets the guy’s eyes after a second and shakes his head. “Oh, sorry, sorry. She’s here for, uh, her throat.”

“And what exactly has been bothering her about it?” The younger boy asks, moving backwards and placing himself down in the rolling chair that Louis hadn’t noticed before. He places his clipboard in his lap and clicks the pen before looking back up at Louis with an inquisitive look on his face.

“Well, she says it’s just been hurting when she talks or eats, but it’s not swollen or anything. She can still breathe normally and swallow without too much problem,” Louis explains as best he can, not sure how detailed he’s supposed to be.

“Alright, thank you mister Tomlinson,” the guy smiles at Louis. 

He stands back up and makes his way over to where Emily is sitting, playing with the bracelets on her hands and kicking her feet together. He gently lifts her feet up to open a drawer built into the bed and pulls out some tools that Louis thinks he’s seen before but he couldn’t name if his life depended on it.

“Ok, now if you don’t mind, just open your mouth wide for me and say ‘ahhhh’ like you’re on a big rollercoaster,” he instructs with a smile.

“I’m scared of roller coasters though!” Emily exclaims with wide eyes.

“Well princesses aren’t supposed to be afraid of _anything_ ,” Harry gasps. “But that’s only in the fairy tales, so I can make an exception. How about you go ‘ahhh’ as if you’re sliding down a big slide into a pool of chocolate?”

“That sounds fun,” she smiles and Louis let’s himself smile too. This guy is too great with kids and it’s absolutely killing him.

Emily opens her mouth and makes the sound while the young doctor shines a light to see down her throat for a few second, making small humming noises and pressing around her neck. It’s different from what Louis was expecting. He figured they’d just shove a popsicle stick down her throat and press down on her tongue then give him a three hundred dollar prescription for some medicine that wouldn’t even be useful.

He sits and waits patiently while the doctor continues the examination and keeps making funny comments to make his daughter laugh. It warms his heart seeing her look so happy and nowhere near as afraid as she was previously. The one way to his heart is probably to make Emily smile, because he knows she deserves it considering how sweet of a girl she is.

“Hey, Mister Tomlinson, what did one snowman say to the other?” The guy says, pulling Louis from his thought and smiling with a dimple in his cheek with Emily covering her mouth in laughter behind him.

“You can call me Louis, and I don’t know, what did they say?” He responds politely with a small grin.

“He asked him ‘Do you smell carrots too?’,” he says and Louis can’t help but snort at how ridiculous the joke is.

“That was a good one,” and he almost goes to say the boy’s name but then he remembers he doesn’t know it so he cuts his statement off awkwardly.

“You can call me Harry,” the doctor smiles.

“Alright, then that was a good one _Harry_ ,” he compliments genuinely.

“Hey, your name is Harry and your last name is Styles, like hairstyle,” Emily pipes up excitedly.

“And your hair is quite curly too. You’re just full of irony, aren’t you?” Louis throws in.

“Chock full, actually,” Harry corrects, raising a finger in the air. Louis holds back a snort at how easily that can be made to sound like a completely different phrase by just dropping one later.

“Do you have any other jokes doctor Harry?” Emily asks sweetly.

Harry turns around to face her again and hums, placing a fist under his chin in thought. It seems like he has to think hard, but Louis sees right through it. Any guy who even _owns_ a banana patterned shirt has got to be a walking book full of bad jokes and terrible puns.

“How many tickles does it take to make an octopus laugh?” He asks suddenly.

“Um..” Emily starts, furrowing her eyebrows together. “Daddy, help me!”

Louis himself doesn’t know the answer though so he thinks about it for a second and says the first number that comes to mind, hoping that it’s right. “Six maybe?”

Harry shakes his head and grins. “Any other guesses? Do you need to call a friend for help?”

“One hundred and forty!” Emily exclaims with a small rasp to her voice.

“Hey, let’s not yell so that your throat doesn’t get worse,” Harry tells her kindly and she frowns a little but nods nonetheless. “And the answer is ten.”

Harry looks between Louis and his daughter expecting laughs but all he gets is confused looks. It’s like he doesn’t realize how unfunny the jokes are, just stuck in his own little world thinking that he’s one of the greatest comedians ever to grace this doctor’s office. Suddenly, he ducks down and Louis can see him whispering into Emily’s ear. She let’s out an ‘ohh’ and smiles.

“Your dad still doesn’t understand it,” Harry tells her, grinning over at Louis who frowns. “That’s what happens when you get old.”

“Hey, I heard that and I’m only twenty eight,” he huffs, crossing his arms and leaning back in the chair he’s in.

“Do you want me to explain the joke to you?” Harry asks like he’s talking to a little kid.

“ _No_ , I get it now. It’s funny,” Louis responds, rolling his eyes up to Harry and cocking his head.

“I don’t think he understands it,” Emily loudly whispers to Harry. He nods back at her.

“I think he’s lying which is a very bad example to set in front of children,” Harry scolds with a serious look on his face.

It’s easy to see through it though because he’s not a good actor at all and his eyes are practically gleaming with joy. Louis would try to keep up his tough act longer, does actually succeed for a second, but then he’s sighing and chuckling a little bit under his breath.

“Fine, explain it to me then since I seem to be setting such a bad example in front of my own daughter.”

Harry smiles brightly now and claps his hands together. “Now, octopuses ha-”

“Octopi,” Louis interrupts with a smug look on his face.

“Yeah, them, they have tentacles, right?” Harry asks and Louis nods slowly. “Since they have tentacles they deserve ten-tickles. See the joke now?”

It takes a second, but then realization and understanding floods over Louis and he raises his eyebrows up. It’s a pretty clever joke actually which is terrible because Harry is supposed to only be able to tell shitty jokes, the ones that you only remember so you can tell them to your friends when you’re all drunk together.

“Ok, I’ll admit; that one was pretty clever,” Louis gives to him and Harry fake bows.

“Thank you, thank you,” he boasts before returning back to serious talking once again. “Now, Emily’s throat doesn’t seem to be infected and it doesn’t look like she has any breathing troubles or lumps in her throat. The only thing I really notice is some redness towards the back which is obviously where the irritation is coming from.”

Louis nods along and Emily listens intently although there’s no way she can really understand what Harry’s talking about.

“It could’ve simply been caused from eating something too hot or scratching her throat on a sharp piece of food, but in a few days or so it’ll be gone. Until then, all I can tell you is to go to the store and buy some throat spray - cherry is the best flavor in my opinion - and have Emily swallow some twice a day. It’ll soothe the irritation and hopefully she won’t even notice that it’s even there anymore!” Harry finishes with a nod and a closed lip smile. It amazes Louis how happy he can seem and how many times he can smile in the span of a half hour or so.

“Thank you doctor Harry!’ Emily exclaims, jumping down from the bed and wrapping her small body around Harry - mostly his legs - in a hug.

“No problem Princess Emily,” he returns, wrapping his own arms around her.

“I’m feeling a bit left out,” Louis complains.

“I would hug you, Louis, but you’re just not as cute as she is,” Harry shrugs, looking up at Louis with a smirk.

Eventually they release each other from the hug and Emily runs back over to Louis, grabbing his hand and attempting to pull him forward out of the door. He doesn’t budge much though and instead wraps both of his hands around hers and crouches down in front of her.

“Hey, go wait out in the lobby while I speak to Harry, alright? I think they have a sucker waiting for you out there,” Louis whispers to her with a smile. 

She immediately drops her jaw and nearly runs out of the room to go get the candy Louis mentioned. He laughs a little then stand back up, stretching his arms back as Harry replaces the paper on the bed and puts his tools back where they belong.

“Thank you for being so good with Em, it means a lot,” Louis tells him honestly. “She was almost in tears on the way here and you made her experience ten times better than what I was even expecting.”

“Ah, no problem,” Harry shrugs. “She’s an adorable little girl, really sweet too.”

“Yeah, I think she gets that from me,” Louis teases and Harry cackles.

“I can see that,” he says and Louis pulls his bottom lip into his mouth because he was _not_ expecting that answer.

“How old are you, just out of curiosity?” Louis asks him as casually as possible.

“Twenty three as of three months ago,” Harry responds. “And you said you’re twenty eight, yeah?”

“That’s correct mhm,” Louis confirms. 

There’s a part of him that figures he should say goodbye now and go back to Emily before she gets impatient. Another part of him, though, is entranced by Harry and doesn’t want to leave him in fear of never getting to see him again. Since Louis knows he really wouldn’t see Harry again unless Emily gets sick, he makes a split second decision to do something he hasn’t in years.

“Uh, can I have your number? For, you know, questions and stuff. So Emily doesn’t get sick again,” Louis rambles out terribly. It seems to be enough though and if the smug grin on Harry’s face is anything to go by, he sees right through Louis’ little white lie.

“I don’t see a problem with that,” Harry says simply.

Then he picks his clipboard back off the bed and tears a corner off of one of the blank document forms, holding it down as he scribbles some numbers out on the paper. It only takes about fifteen seconds but Louis thinks he might ie from anxiety. Or maybe it’s just the sheer rush of knowing the fact that _he’s actually getting a guy’s number._

“Here you go.” Harry hands him the slip and Louis glances over it, taking in the cute smiley face crudely drawn beside the set of numbers.

“Thank you very much doctor Styles,” Louis replies with a mischievous glint in his eye.

He tucks the paper into his front pocket and just as he steps out into the hallway, a deep voice calls out behind him and he smirks to himself.

“I hope I see you again _really_ soon!”

He pretends not to hear the comment and leaves Harry wondering whether Louis will actually end up calling him or not although there’s not a single doubt in Louis’ mind that he’s going to need to find a babysitter in the very near future.

 

**Author's Note:**

> hope you liked this!! please leave comments and kudos, they're greatly appreciated!
> 
> if you want to talk to me, i'm strong on ao3, @daddyhair on twitter, louwie on tumblr :)


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